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Organic Farming: Notes on Organic Farming in India

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Organic Farming: Notes on Organic Farming in India!

Organic farming, evolved on the basic theoretical expositions of Rodale in the United States, Lady Balfour in England and Sir Albert Howard in India in the 1940s, has progressed to cover about 23 million hectares of land all over the world. Howard’s magnum opus, ‘An Agricultural Testament’ has a special significance to us in India as it is based on an analysis of the environment friendly farming practiced here for centuries.

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However, it is another matter that we lag behind a majority of agriculture based countries in the world in the practice of organic farming in spite of the fact that we have been one of the sufferers of the conventional farming system. The conventional farming had helped India not only to produce enough food for own consumption but also generated surpluses for exports.

However, the increasing population and income will lead to further increases in demand for food and also for raw materials for industry. The modern system of farming, it is increasingly felt, is becoming unsustainable as evidenced by declining crop productivities, damage to environment, chemical contaminations, etc.

The necessity of having an alternative agriculture method which can function in a friendly eco-system while sustaining and increasing the crop productivity is realized now. Organic farming is recognized as the best known alternative to the conventional agriculture.

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Actually speaking this is not a new practice, but new concept. Yes, our ancient people were following this system unknowingly and the results of green revolution swapped away these practices substituting with chemical inputs aiming for higher yields.

The concept is commercialized with the inception of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) on 6th November 1972 in France. Presently farmers from more than 100 countries are practising this organic farming.

Ultimate aim of this organic farming is eliminating the artificial/synthetic inputs and encouraging the eco-friendly management system. Australia is the global leader in organic farming, which is followed by China, India and Russia respectively. Asia has about 13 per cent of world’s organic farming area.

The growing health consciousness among the people leads the organic farming to gain a greater momentum. World Bank has also sanctioned several projects to encourage the rural poor to reach the export market for selling their organic produce.

Talking about the boon of organic agriculture it safeguards the environment pollution by reducing the residual effects of synthetic inputs and substituting the same with proper organic inputs like FYM, Compost, Bio-fertilizers, and Bio-pesticides etc.

Biological means of pest and disease management paves way for residue free farm produce, which is superior in quality and nutritious that contributes for healthy well being of human society. The shelf life of organic produce is also comparatively longer than the synthetically produced stuffs. Coming to the next side -the bane, it is highly time consuming and labour intensive process where there are ample of chances for yield reduction in initial period of adoption. Appropriate package of practices for all agriculture and horticulture crops are not available.

Training needs of the organic growers are also not met satisfactorily. Because of these inadequate regulatory and quality control mechanisms it is difficult for the ordinary organic growers to come out of the costly certification process. If they are coming out also it is very difficult for them to find a market for their produce.

Above all it is difficult for the highly populated countries like China, India etc to meet the production volume for feeding the growing population with the inadequate organic inputs. For example in India it is estimated that the gap between the available and required organic inputs will be around 30 million tonnes in 2025.

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Hence it is wise to use both organic and inorganic sources in a balanced manner to get sustained crop yields, which is broadly called as “Integrated Crop Management Approach”.